Yearly Archives: 2014

“Three on a Match,” a 1932 Warner Brother’s pre-code film takes on the friendship of 3 women who begin their social lives as very different personalities. The film opens their story at a New York public school, where the brash … Continue reading →

Warner Brothers wonderful early thirties musicals didn’t overtax themselves for a plot idea. They just put on a Broadway show at the end with lots of lead-in featuring backstage preparation and ambitious chorus girls. I find them quite funny and … Continue reading →

When an art exhibition in Australia features a painting of a naked woman on a cross, the outraged bishop of Sydney dispatches a priest to the countryside. His mission: convince the artist Norman Lindsay (Sam Neill) to withdraw the painting … Continue reading →

I personally prefer private eyes in movies who go about their work without the need to question their selfish motives or their need to solve problems with violence. If they were meant to ask moral questions, they’d have become a … Continue reading →

The vivid color palate of “My One and Only,” which tells the story of actor George Hamilton’s 1950’s cross-country trip to Hollywood with his Southerner mother and step-brother, helps to give the 2009 movie a vintage postcard feel that the … Continue reading →

“Ugetsu Monogatari,” a 1953 film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, describes the tribulations of 2 married couples during the Japanese civil wars of the 16th century. That time of violence, lawlessness, famine, rape and pillaging destroyed families and villages, and forced … Continue reading →

As a young school child, I remember reading Thor Heyerdahl’s fantastic true adventure account of sailing on a balsa wood raft with 5 other crew members from Peru to Polynesia. Even though Heyerdahl’s crew made the voyage successfully with little … Continue reading →

“Frances Ha,” a film released in 2013, features Greta Gerwig as the title character, a 27-year-old dancer attempting to make it in New York City. She lives with her best friend from college, Sophie (Mickey Sumner), who works in the … Continue reading →

The title character doesn’t show up in “My Darling Clementine” for about 40 minutes, which is enough time to set up the gritty and grim prospects in Tombstone, Arizona, where Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday took part in the gunfight … Continue reading →

“Dance, Girl, Dance,” a 1940 RKO Radio Pictures film directed by Dorothy Arzner, opens with a neon rooftop sign advertising tires, pans down to a club called the Palais Royale and then immediately fades to an 8-woman dance act that … Continue reading →